Taco Friday

Based on my (pitifully few) blog entries, you might conclude that I'm obsessed with Mexican food.  I've mentioned tacos four times as often as I have the legendary actor/director/producer Clint Eastwood, after all, and anything that gets more column space than Dirty Harry must rank pretty high up there.  I also have to confess that I do love me some plastic spoon tamarind candies:

However, I would like to state for the record that it is this town--and not me--with the fixation on Mexican food.  In fact, if you were to distill Grand Forks cuisine into one base recipe, I believe it would read something like this:

1. Take a carbohydrate, preferably one fried.
2. Top it with taco meat, preferably of the Taco Bell variety.
3. Optional: Add Cheddar cheese, jalapeño peppers, or mild salsa.

Taco in a bag obviously falls into this category.  So does the food at Taco John's, where I recently ordered a taco with a side of Potato Olés (I think the accent mark over olé adds an air of authenticity to what is a dish of tater tots topped with nacho cheese).

But the grand poobah of the North Dakotan take on the taco is the Grinder, a deli sandwich found at Red Pepper.

There, they take a turkey or ham sandwich, use what looks like a frosting spatula to smear taco meat and some kind of sweetened mayonnaise on top, sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese over all of that, and arrange it all on a paper plate.

The result, I have to say, is not my favorite of the taco creations on offer here, but the restaurant is charmingly quaint.  I can also understand the Grinder's appeal to people who were weaned on them or to college students who just had a few beers at one of the frat houses a block down the road.  Actually, I think I could see the appeal even more if the chefs put a Cheez-Whiz–like nacho sauce on top, like Taco John does with the tater tot. In fact, since I just signed up as a Potato Olés Maniac on the Taco Johns website, I just might have to go redeem my free bowl of Mexicanized tater tots now.

On Geese and Tacos

At the end of my mom's and my twelve-hour drive to Fargo last Sunday, three central clues made us realize we'd made it to North Dakota--a state neither one of us had ever set foot in:

1. There was a friendly sign.
2. The land seemed to get somehow flatter, slightly oranger, and to have fewer of Minnesota's famed "10,000 lakes".
3. The Mexican food sounded even less authentic.

In retrospect, #1 was probably evidence enough.  Also in retrospect, #3 was a pretty difficult test for North Dakota to pass given that somewhere a little after St. Paul, we passed up the opportunity to dine at "Taco Gringo".  Our first hint of the quality of North Dakotan Mexican fare came from a radio program advising us on how to cook a goose (our second hint was the sighting of several Taco John's, which you'd think the original John could have at least name Tacos de Juan or something):

Goose Expert: One thing about geese, you will probably have leftovers.
Radio Host: Hmm.  What do you suggest for goose leftovers?
GE: I often make tacos.
RH: And what do you put on your goose tacos?
GE: Oh, the usual.  Lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, pickles.

And that is when I learned that if asked if I want everything on my taco, I need to specify, "Please, hold the pickles."